Tube strip handling and heating apparatus

A sample tube handling assembly comprising:

• a plurality of tube strips, each tube strip comprising a joined series of individual sample tubes, each individual simple tube having an upper portion and a lower portion;
• and
• a tube strip holder comprising:
• a rectangular outer frame having two spaced outer longitudinal walls extending in a longitudinal direction, and two spaced outer lateral walls extending in a lateral direction and extending between respective ends of the outer longitudinal walls, the outer frame forming an enclosure having an open upper side and an open lower side;
• a frame contact surface configured to contact a heating block;
• a plurality of tube strip wells located inside the outer frame, each tube strip well extending in the lateral direction between the outer longitudinal walls, and being configured to receive a respective tube strip through the open upper side and support the respective tube strip in a vertical direction;
• wherein each tube strip well matches the shape of the respective tube strip, as viewed from the open upper side of the enclosure, and at least partially wraps around the upper portion of each individual sample tube, to thereby transfer heat from the contact surface to the upper portion of each individual sample tube.

A tube strip holder comprising:

• an outer frame;
• a heat transfer surface configured to selectively contact a heating block;
• and
• a plurality of tube strip wells within the outer frame, each tube strip well being configured to receive a respective tube strip comprising a plurality of conjoined individual sample tubes;
• wherein the outer frame and tube strip wells comprise a heat conduction path configured to uniformly distribute heat received from the heat transfer surface to each of the plurality of conjoined individual sample tubes.